News Wire

Key Aide to Michele Bachmann Once Charged As Terrorist in Uganda

By Fungai Maboreke, Special to the NNPA from the Global Information Network –

(NNPA) A political organizer who helped send Congresswoman Michele Bachmann to victory in the recent Ames Iowa straw poll faced a life sentence in Uganda in 2006 on a gun-running charge.

Peter E. Waldron was held for 37 days, along with six Congolese and Ugandan nationals, in Luriza Prison, outside of Kampala. They were charged with possession of assault rifles and ammunition. Waldron was deported back to the U.S. reportedly after intervention from the Bush Administration.

Waldron, originally from Wyoming, spent several years in the East African country. The Kampala Monitor reported he was working with a Congo group to set up a Christian political party in Uganda. He also reportedly told a friend he has worked for the CIA.

He was also rumored to have been working with Congolese rebel militia members to capture Joseph Kony, leader of the Ugandan guerrilla group the Lord's Resistance Army, and claim a $1.7 million bounty on his head but that planning for the operation went awry, leading police to Waldron's house and the guns.

Waldron ‘s East African ordeal is detailed in The Ultimate Price: The Peter E. Waldron Story, a film whose trailer was abruptly removed from YouTube after The Atlantic online magazine carried a piece on it. A synopsis of the film reads as follows:

"Lebanon. Iraq. Syria. Afghanistan. Pakistan. Uganda. India. For over 30 years, his family never knew where he went -- never knew what he did. Based on a true story, Dr. Peter Waldron was on a mission. Was he a businessman, a preacher, a spy? Tortured and facing a firing squad, he never broke his oath of silence. What secret was worth the ultimate price?"

Amnesty: $260 Million Intended for Ivory Coast Toxic Dump Victims Must Be Found

By Fungai Maboreke, Special to the NNPA from the Global Information Network –

(NNPA) A settlement of $260 million owed to citizens of the West African nation of Ivory Coast, victims of a nighttime dumping of toxic trash by a foreign barge, must be found and distributed, says the rights group Amnesty International.

According to the group, only a handful of the 92,000 victims received any payment and the money paid to the former government of Laurent Gbagbo is largely unaccounted for. “It’s unacceptable that so many people …have not received the compensation they are entitled to,” said Benedetta Lacey, special advisor to Amnesty on the 5th anniversary of the disaster.

Hundreds of tons of highly toxic oil waste were offloaded in Abidjan, the country’s commercial capital, on Aug. 19, 2006. Later it was learned that the British company, Trafigura, was fully aware that its waste was so toxic that it was banned in Europe. More than 100,000 Ivorians required medical attention and 12 victims appeared to show fatal levels of the poisonous gas hydrogen sulphide, one of the waste's lethal byproducts.

Trafigura agreed to pay $195 million for about 95,000 victims. A second payment of $20 million was approved as final payment for additional costs and clean-up expenses.

But a group calling itself the National Coordination of Toxic Waste Victims of Cote d’Ivoire managed to hijack some of the funds. Much of the money is now missing and the head of the group has disappeared.

Genevieve Diallo, of the victims’ group next to Akouedo dumpsite said: “On the 5th anniversary, we must think about the victims… “Those who have misappropriated the money must be brought to justice. Justice must be done.”

Harvard Study Finds Housing Affordability A Growing Issue

(NNPA) While the recession has contributed to a price drop in residential homes, many consumers still lack the resources to transition from renting to homeownership. In fact, according to a recent housing report, not only are the numbers of renters growing; but the nation’s supply of affordable rental housing is shrinking.

According to a recent report, America’s Rental Housing: Meeting Challenges, Buildings on Opportunities, from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, the number of renters paying more than half their income for housing is at a record. A record high of 19 million American households – homeowners and renters combined - pay more than half their income for housing. One in four renters – 10.1 million households nationwide – spends more than half their income on rent and utilities. Workers earning $45,000-$60,000 saw the biggest increase in housing costs since 2001 with an increase of nearly eight percent from 2001-2009.

The common standard for housing affordability is that the combined cost of rent and utility costs are less than 30 percent of household income. A housing burden connotes monthly costs between 30-50 percent; and when housing costs are more than 50 percent of household earnings, the residents are severely burdened. By 2009, the share of moderately burdened renters stood at 49 percent and those severely burdened passed 26 percent.

With these data points, it is clear that the financial stress of housing affects middle class Americans and the poor alike. Lower and middle income households together represent 79 percent of the nation’s renters– including a significant number of minorities. Blacks and Latinos accounted for 89 percent of the growth in rental housing in this decade.

In the 100 largest metro areas studied, the share of severely cost-burdened renters climbed by an average of seven percentage points between 2001 and 2009. According to the report, by the end of this decade the shares of renters spending more than half their incomes on rent and utilities will be a financial challenge in 73 metros areas.

As the rental market grew from 2000-2010, there was no comparable increase in the supply of affordable housing. By 2009, for every 100 low-income renters, the competition was keen for the 64 available and adequate housing units. The gap between available units and the number of renters contributes to overcrowded housing.

Miami had the largest share of severely burdened renters in 2009, followed by McAllen (TX)and Detroit. Two Connecticut metros (New Haven and Bridgeport) and two Ohio metros (Toledo and Akron) also had shares above 30 percent. New Orleans, Orlando, and Memphis rounded out the list of the 10 least affordable metros.

According to the report, “With millions of homeowners delinquent on their mortgages, further increases in the renter population are likely,” advises the report. “Owners that have gone through foreclosure are especially like to remain renters for a number of years to come.”

With mortgage lenders now favoring would-be buyers who can offer larger down payments, higher credit scores, and verified incomes, few families will readily make the transition to homeownership and the opportunity to build wealth. Remaining current on high rental housing costs removes the ability to save aggressively for a home on the current national median income of $64,200.

The irony is that right now, mortgage interest rates remain historically low and home prices are down in most areas of the country –even for high-end homes. In 2010, says the Joint Center, the median home price fell to about 3.4 times the median household income– the lowest since 1995.

Even so, for the foreseeable future - housing costs for purchase orrental will continue to challenge many American households.

Charlene Crowell is the Center for Responsible Lending’s communications manager for state policy and outreach. She can be reached at: Charlene.crowell@responsiblelending.org.

HIV Portfolio Needed for Black Gay Men That's Rooted in Social Justice

By Douglas M. Brooks, Special to the NNPA from the Black AIDS Institute –

(NNPA) The theme of this year's National HIV Prevention Conference (NHPC) could not be more timely: "The Urgency of Now: Reduce Incidence. Improve Access. Promote Equity" is a clarion call to action in the wake of the new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) HIV surveillance report, released on Aug. 3, 2011.

Data in the report show that while the overall number of new HIV infections in the United States has remained fairly stable from 2006 to 2009, there continues to be an increase in new infections among Black gay men. Most alarming was the 48 percent increase in new HIV infections among young (ages 13-29) Black men who have sex with men (MSM) from 2006 to 2009, with a statistically significant estimated annual increase of 12.2 percent.

Simultaneously, the National Black Gay Men's Advocacy Coalition highlighted two other disturbing reports released in the same week: The CDC reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine that rates of primary and secondary syphilis disproportionately increased in recent years among Black and Hispanic young MSM, and a new study commissioned by Janssen Therapeutics and the National Medical Association (NMA) found that social stigmatization is still the largest barrier keeping African American frontline physicians from testing their patients for HIV.

What, then, could be more fiercely urgent for a convening of HIV-prevention professionals than to address the tragedy of adolescents and young adults contracting HIV at alarming rates; whose greatest risk seems to be loving, desiring and sexually connecting with one another in their own communities; and whose communities are ill-equipped to respond to the emergency?

The data here are also clear. Through his research, Gregorio Millett, senior policy adviser at the Office of National AIDS Policy, has demonstrated that these men do not engage in riskier behaviors, do not have a greater number of sexual partners and often do have health insurance.

This is not new; we've been here before, in various ways. For example, six years ago this summer, we were all shocked to learn that a CDC-funded study of MSM conducted in five U.S. cities between June 2004 and April 2005 showed that 46 percent of Black MSM tested were HIV positive, and 64 percent of those men were unaware of their status.

The theme of the NHPC is inextricably linked to the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (pdf) for the United States (NHAS). We cannot truly claim fidelity to the NHAS vision if we do not actualize an America where new HIV infections among Black gay men are rare and, when they do occur, each man "will have unfettered access to high quality, life-extending care, free from stigma and discrimination," as the strategy describes.

The United States has to become a place where Black gay men are enveloped in a system of medical, mental-health and spiritual care as well as nurturing, not a place where they personify a tragic, seemingly intractable, health disparity. As an Institute for Gay Men's Health statement argued six years ago: "If Black, gay men mattered, HIV-prevention interventions would be democratically developed and framed in the language of love, intimacy, connection and sex. HIV prevention would honor the knowledge and wisdom Black gay men bring to bear in creating solutions that make sense to their day-to-day realities. We would embrace this knowledge as credible evidence."

Our country needs an HIV portfolio that considers every possible culturally competent option for Black gay men: behavioral interventions (including trauma resolution), biomedical interventions, spiritual interventions and any other supports that can transform the untenable situation in which we find ourselves.

This should not be read as a call to forget other populations. In fact, this is a plea for inclusion, not exclusion. It is a plea for an HIV portfolio rooted in social justice. Drawing from the social work profession's values of honoring the "dignity and worth of the individual," it is a call for treating Black gay men caringly and with respect, promoting socially responsible self-determination, and enhancing the capacity and opportunity for Black gay men to change and to address their own needs.

Such action will fortify those whose work is to employ their very best open-minded thinking to advance this vision. It will also usher in a brave new world in which empowered Black gay men are supported by the Black and gay communities from which they hail, and the government of their country, so that they can walk with the bold confidence that comes with knowing that they are seen, valued and cherished and that they matter.

Douglas M. Brooks, M.S.W., is senior vice president for community, health and public policy for the Justice Resource Institute and a member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA).

Mothers' Forum Pushes for Answers to 'Flash Mob' Violence

A diverse crowd of concerned parents and residents from a cross section of Philadelphia gathered at the Vare Recreation Center, in South Philadelphia, to discuss possible solutions to the escalating problem of youth violence.

The event was organized by Mothers in Charge, an organization consisting of mothers who lost children in acts of violence.

According to the group’s founder, Dorothy Speight, the forum was held in an effort to engage parents in a dialogue intended to find solutions as opposed to focusing on the problem.

“We had 20 organizations there that provided resources to youth and families. I think many of the parents were frustrated but glad that they came because they were able to access information needed for their children,” said Speight.

Not only did parents and residents have an opportunity to express their concerns during the forum and suggest possible solutions to help prevent flash mob violence in the future, they also were provided with materials outlining some of the services and programs available to them.

One mother, Denea Whitest, who joined Mothers in Charge after losing two of her children to a train accident in 2004, is both a single mother of three, a foster parent and an advocate for children and youth suffering emotional and behavioral health challenges.

After the death of her two children, Whitest began to notice behavioral problems in her other children.

“I knew something was wrong and I went to seek services for them,” said Whitest, who was turned away without help several times and told that there was no help for her children unless they violated the law.

“There are likely other parents whose children are out there who see the problems and seek intervention but the programs aren’t made available to them,” explained Whitest.

Whitest began a personal campaign to find help for her children and in the process discovered a wealth of programs and services she would otherwise not have known existed. This is her concern for those attending the Mothers in Charge Forum.

Whitest was pleased that the forum offered knowledge about many public and private resources for parents with concerns about their youth, but she still believed that the forum — like other responses to the flash mob crisis — leaned too heavily on punishment.

“What I heard was a lot of what we can do to punish but what I wanted to hear more of was what solutions are out there for them. We all really know what to do and what not to do — but teach me how to do it,” said Whitest who suggested another forum be held that would outline a list of strategies and provide more extensive lists of services and programs parents can take advantage of to help their children.

Jordan Harris, executive director of the city’s Youth Commission, saw the forum as a sign of hope.

“We saw the pain but we also saw the promise of doing something about the problem,” said Harris. “One of the things I heard a lot from the community was that they needed someone for their children to look up to, mentor them.”

Harris agrees with others who did not believe that punishment for offending youth was sufficient to eradicate the problem of juvenile delinquency. A combination of parent, community and government working together would, said Harris, be needed for sustained change to occur.

“The only way we are going to get out of this problem is to expose our youth to more than what they are seeing today. When they see more they will want to do more,” said Harris.